During our preparation for the Great Northern Regional, local news channel KVRR toured our building, interviewed members of two of the teams, and recorded footage of the robots.

From KVRR:

FARGO, N.D. — High school students in the area are preparing to compete in a robotics competition held by an organization called First Robotics.

“It’s an experience you can’t get anywhere else. There’s not a lot of other programs that give you this much manufacturing or engineering experience,” said Brennan Coslett, a West Fargo High School senior.

Students from various high schools in Fargo, West Fargo, and Moorhead are building different robots designed to complete an obstacle. The goal is to get as many of blocks onto one side of a lever so it tilts in that team’s favor.

Students have been preparing for the competition for past six weeks.

“When you finally get to see it moving, it’s the best feeling. Because you’ve been working day in and day out. And you get to go in and seeing it all come together just one day where everything was moving, picking up and placing blocks where we wanted to, was just the best feeling,” said Kyle Schmidt, another West Fargo High School senior.

The students work with mentors, and the competition is part of a global initiative to inspire students to get into engineering.

“I like it when the switch flips in a student when they finally get what engineering is. That moment when they say, okay if this is engineering then I’m in. That’s really what I look for,” said Lee Johnson, a team mentor.

Students say completing together fosters a great team–building environment.

“It’s a little challenging especially when you see a much of men in one room and you’re the only female but all the guys just become your teammates and treat you like the rest of the people,” said Sadiyo Jassa, a West Fargo High School senior. “So you can thrive in it as long as you have the drive and passion for it.”

It’s an experience these students say wouldn’t have been possible without the help of their sponsors.

The robotics competition will be held next week over the course of several days in Grand Forks.

On March 21st our team boarded the bus for the 7 hour drive to Cedar Falls, Iowa to participate in the FIRST Iowa Regional. Thursday brought practice matches, where we were able to test and modify our robot and the 2 cube scale auto we had been working on. On Friday, qualification matches began and the Chairman’s team presented to their judges. Saturday brought more qualification matches, as well as playoff matches. After qualification matches finished, we were ranked #3 with a 10 win and 4 loss record! For the second time in our existence, we were alliance captains. We chose teams 2526 and 5690 as our alliance partners. We made it to the semifinals were we faced the #2 team. We won our first match, but in the second match our robot tipped on the scale during auto and we were red carded. Prior to the third match, team 2526 was not able to continue, so team 4646 subbed in for them. Unfortunately, we lost our match and did not advance any further. During the awards ceremony, we received the Quality Award again! Throughout the whole competition, our team continued to work as a team and we left everything out on that field. We look forward to recapping and setting up our returning members with the skills necessary to be successful next year.

At 6:30 am on March 1st our team, along with team 7048, boarded the bus to head to Grand Forks, ND for the inaugural Great Northern Regional. Thursday was a day for practice, and a day to figure out how to fix all the kinks in our robot. On Friday, 3 team members gave their Chairman’s presentation. Also on Friday, qualification matches started. By the end of qualification matches on Friday, the team was ranked 19 with 7 wins, 7 losses, and 1 tie. Our team was selected by team 2491 to be on alliance #5. Coincidentally, our other alliance partner was our sister team, team 7048! We won both games of the quarter finals and were on our way to the semi finals. In the semi finals we faced the #1 seeded alliance. Unfortunately we lost two matches and were out. At the end of the regional, however, our team was awarded the Quality Award! This was awarded to us for the reliability, high performance, elegance, efficiency, and maintainability of our robot design. Overall our robot, and team as a whole, performed well, despite having numerous issues with our intake. We are already bursting with ideas on how to make our robot more efficient. We look forward to attending the Iowa Regional in a couple of weeks!

The 2018 FIRST Robotics Competition game is Powerup. The objective of the game is to place power cubes on the scale and switches to gain control of them, as well as use power cubes to gain powerups.

There are two alliances during the game, each consisting of three robots. Alliances can earn points in numerous ways. An alliance will score points for every second they control the scale or their own switch. They can provide their alliance with power cubes to activate one of three different powerups (one is played during the end game and the other two can be played during any point in the game).

The game starts with a 20 second autonomous period where robots are pre-programmed to cross the baseline or place power cubes on the switch or scale. Following autonomous is a teleop period where human drivers drive their robots to earn as many points as possible. The game finishes with a 30 second end game period. During this period, robots drive on the platform or attach to the rung on the scale to gain extra points. This is also when the third power up can be used. The team with the most points at the end of the match wins!

On September 29th, we had the privilege to present to a local elementary school: Freedom Elementary. Our goal for this presentation was to show over two hundred fourth and fifth graders our robot from last season, as well as make them aware of the FIRST Lego League teams that their school has to offer. Through an interactive presentation, we were able to achieve our goal! The students loved watching our robot from last season pick up and shoot balls. We were also able to spark many interests, both in the students and in their teachers, about FIRST. The students had numerous questions about both our team and their own school’s FLL teams. This presentation helped fill the three FLL teams at Freedom Elementary! We will be returning to Freedom twice a week to help with those FLL teams, but more on that to come in the future.